The Hunt of the Grimalkin (Erresuma Book 1) by Dani Swanson (books to read romance TXT) 📗

to get here. I’m not sure if I’ll make it back. I’m not really sure where I’m going or how to get back to where I came from. I had better go find some place to go for the evening. Thank you for your hospitality,” She said as she slowly stood up from the stool. “Which way is the market?” she questioned him.

“If you don’t have anywhere to stay, you are more than welcome to stay out in the barn. I couldn’t explain having a young girl sleeping in my house to the wife.” He grabbed his little walking stick and wobbled over to the closet door and removed a pillow and a blanket from the shelves. “Come on then.” He said in his gruff voice as they walked out the back of the house. “It’s not much, but it will keep the chill off of you.”

The barn, with red peeling paint had a loft full of hay. There were no animals in the barn, but the stalls looked as if they were prepared for critters to live in them. “We’ll see you in the morning,” Flynn said as he turned to leave. “Keep the door latched,” she heard him warn as he hobbled back up to the house.

The girl and Fig curled up upon a hay stack with the fairy blanket and the blanket the little old man gave her, and settled in for the night. “Well, this is better than sleeping outside,” she said to Fig as she adjusted the hay to not stick her through the blanket.

The wind was howling outside. She could see the clouds around the moon through the cracked window of the barn; they glided eerily across the crescent. She drifted in and out of sleep, but woke up each time she heard any noise.

She finally fell asleep hard. Her dream was a flutter of colors flashing past her. She walked down a road and the faster she walked, the faster the colors fluttered. There were pictures of a tiger and a horse that flashed by. She started to run towards a large mansion. She reached for the gate’s latch. As her fingers wrapped around the handle, everything disappeared – the house, the colors, and the pictures. She was falling through the darkness and landed in a lake with a splash. There was a woman in the lake. She was beautiful with flowing hair, and as the girl paddled towards her, the beautiful woman’s skin turned green and her hair turned to snakes. The woman screamed a high pitched noise that made the girl’s ears bleed. The girl jumped up out of her sleep in a sweat. She was panting hard. Fig was watching her from the edge of their hay stack with a puffed out tail and a bewildered look on his face. “Sorry,” she breathed.

The night continued on with light sleep, the clouds outside creating shadows across the ceiling of the barn. It creaked and whined as the wind blew against it. She slowly pet the little orange cat who slept on her stomach. All she wanted to do was sleep a full night through.

Fig suddenly lifted his head, his hair was standing on end. He started a deep throaty growl as he watched an unknown object moving around outside the window. She slowly raised herself up to her elbows. She heard the scratching move around the building to the front of the barn. She slowly moved from her bed of hay to the door. She peered through the cracks of the door. Her heart rose into her throat when she heard the scratching get closer to where she was standing. She watched for a few moments in fear, and then she saw a large object move closer to the door.

It was a small horse, one that she had seen running through the field earlier that day. She heaved a great sigh of relief as the adrenaline slowed through her veins. She unlocked the door and the horse came into the barn, walked over to a stall and lay down in the hay. She relocked the door and walked over to it. The horse was tan in color with a golden mane that almost reached the ground. She placed a hand on its nuzzle and looked into the horse’s eyes. It seemed to stare into her soul as if it knew the meaning of everything in the world. She almost felt hypnotized. Fig let out a gentle meow from their makeshift bed and the girl shook herself out of the trance. She walked back over to their bed and lay back down to sleep.

Morning finally came as the sun reflected through the broken windows and made refracted rainbows fill the barn. She folded up her blankets and unlocked the door. The little horse ran out towards the field she had seen it in before. She walked over to the house and knocked on the door. Flynn was up and cooking something that smelled like cinnamon and apples, over the fire.

“Morning,” he said to her in the deep voice. “The wife is not home yet, but I reckon you two are hungry.” Flynn put a saucer of milk down on the mat for Fig. The cat purred as he happily lapped it up. He handed her a bowl of porridge.

“There was a little horse that came to the barn last night,” she told Flynn.

The little old man smiled at her, but clearly the smile masked his true emotions. “I used to have a lot of horses and other animals too. The fences broke one night and everyone left. The horses come back at night sometimes to sleep. I usually leave the door open for them so they can get in,” he explained looking despondently out the window.

“I’m sorry to hear that! How did the fence break?” she asked, the disrepair outside began to make sense as she studied the small